The HP No. 81 and HP No. 83 supplies are designed to work together with your HP Designjet 5500 or 5500ps printer. The type of supplies you receive with your printer depends on the type of ink system you specified: normal dye-based ink or pigment-based UV ink.

Ink supplies feature HP's JetExpress printhead technology, smart chips and six colors, with the speed, performance, and image quality advantages of these technologies.

Both ink systems consist of three components: printheads with their printhead cleaners and the ink cartridges. The printer uses six of each.

Each 600-dpi thermal inkjet printhead applies thousands of ink droplets onto the paper. The printer automatically refills the printhead as it prints, enabling continuous uninterrupted printing. The ink is supplied to each printhead from a separate large capacity ink cartridge. The colors are light cyan, light magenta, yellow, cyan, magenta, and black.

The printer uses printhead cleaners to clean and maintain the printheads, to ensure best possible image quality, and to seal the printheads when they are not in use to ensure long life.

Printhead life is warranted to 700 ml of ink consumed. However, on average the anticipated life expectancy of the printheads is two or three times this. This is provided that the printhead is used under normal operating conditions (using HP ink cartridges only) and its "install before date" has not lapsed. However results vary depending on the print mode setting you use.

For each of the six ink colors used in the printer, there are three separate components. The printhead and the printhead cleaner are supplied together, the ink cartridge is supplied separately.

Two types of ink supplies are available, dye-based ink and pigment-based UV ink. The components of the normal dye-based ink are called the HP No. 81 Supplies, and the components of the pigment-based UV ink are called the HP No. 83 UV Ink Supplies. The ink supplies are coded with an HP No. 81/HP No. 83 selection number to help you reorder the correct replacement supplies.

hp no. 81 dye-based ink supplies

The HP No. 81 ink supplies, also referred to as imaging inks, are designed to deliver sharp brilliant images with ultimate image quality performance.

hp no. 83 uv ink supplies

The HP No. 83 ink supplies, also referred to as UV pigmented inks, are designed to deliver bright and colorful outdoor light-fast signs and posters that are resistant to ultra-violet light. They are weather-durable outdoors and fade-resistant indoors for extended periods when used with selected printing material.